Garry Kasparov could be charged with an offence that carries a five year jail
term after accusations that he bit a police officer during a demonstration
supporting Pussy Riot.

Russian riot policemen detain former world chess champion and Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov outside a court building in Moscow where the trial of feminist punk band Pussy Riot is taking placePhoto: AFP

Mr Kasparov, 49, a Russian democracy activist and former world chess champion, was one of up to 100 people detained by police close to Moscow's Khamovnichesky Court on Friday, where a judge sentenced three members of the feminist anti-Kremlin group to two years in a correctional prison colony.

Police sources told Russian media that Mr Kasparov, who claims he was talking quietly to journalists when he was arrested, could be charged with using violence against a state official, a criminal indictment that carries a maximum custodial sentence of five years, after allegedly biting a policeman's hand. Mr Kasparov dismissed the accusation as "drivel".

About 2,000 demonstrators gathered close to the court in support of the Pussy Riot three - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30 - who were jailed for conducting a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral in February, during which they urged the Virgin Mary to "drive out Putin".

Their prosecution provoked a wave of international protest, with the US and British governments joining celebrities such as Madonna and Sir Paul McCartney in condemning the trial as an attack on political freedom.

Violetta Volkova, one of Pussy Riot's defence team, said yesterday that the three were in good spirits as they prepared to be transferred from pre-trial detention to a prison colony. "They are not disheartened," she said. "They were ready for this verdict; in fact they were calming us lawyers down after it was pronounced."

In a photograph apparently taken through a window of the van the former chess maestro can be seen grimacing as an officer presses a hand against his neck.

Pro-Kremlin media later showed Denis Ratnikov, 29, a police officer, holding up a bandaged left hand splashed with green disinfectant and claiming that Mr Kasparov had bitten him as he tried to scramble out of the bus.

But the activist, who is a co-founder of the Solidarity opposition group, said after his release late on Friday: "I want to see this officer. The suggestion that I bit him is total drivel. I tried to get free, of course, but my teeth were firmly gritted. Maybe it was a police dog that bit him?"

Police said in response they were ready to "carry out a test comparing a police dog's bite to Kasparov's teeth" in order to prove the alleged assault.

Pussy Riot say their cathedral protest was against the Orthodox Church supporting Vladimir Putin's re-election to the presidency in March.

Following the verdict the Church issued a statement calling on state authorities "to show mercy to the people convicted within the framework of the law, in the hope that they will refrain from repeating blasphemous actions."

Mr Kasparov has been ordered to report to police this week.

The Russian government has not responded directly to criticism of the trial, but the foreign ministry issued a statement on Saturday in which it said that German and Austrian law also foresaw custodial sentences for "hooliganistic pranks in buildings of prayer".